Katsiyannis, A. C.; Kemp, S. N.; Berry, D. S.; Meaburn, J.
Bibliographical reference
Astronomy and Astrophysics Supplement, v.132, p.387-399
Advertised on:
11
1998
Citations
17
Refereed citations
14
Description
We have digitally co-added APM scans of 13 Kodak TechPan films of the SE
region of the Virgo cluster of galaxies. The ~ 6.2degr x 6.2degr field
of the R-band films combined with the resolution of ~ 2 arcsec pixel(-1)
results in data file sizes of about 222 MBytes. The 13 scanned films
have been aligned, co-added, corrected for vignetting effects and
cleaned of stellar features. To illustrate the astrophysical uses of
this technique, we present high contrast images of a sample of Virgo
cluster and background galaxies. Several very faint, but very clearly
seen features, such as the interaction between IC 3481, IC 3481A and IC
3483 and filaments outside of the common envelope of NGC 4438 & NGC
4435, can be seen for the first time. We present an image of the halo of
M 87 showing its great extent, and an image of the central regions of
the cluster which shows no real evidence for interactions between the
galaxies in this region. We also present high-quality images of the
previously-identified ``jet" and shell features around M 89. We also
present an image of the whole field which appears to show large
variations in brightness of the intra-cluster medium across the region,
with the brightest regions in the northern part in the central regions
of the cluster, though we caution against this interpretation until we
have investigated the large variation in emulsion sensitivity across
individual films more thoroughly.